


Mother's Futility

by Anti_Mattering



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen, happens somewhere around the end of Nasch vs IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28689093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anti_Mattering/pseuds/Anti_Mattering
Summary: At the end of the world, one woman only wants to find her daughter.
Kudos: 8





	Mother's Futility

"Kotori!"

As she ran through the vacant streets of Heartland, she continued to call out her daughter's name. "Kotori!" Where could she be? She hadn't seen or heard from her since this morning. She was going to play with Yuma like always, but then she disappeared. Calling her wasn't working, either, and she couldn't be sure if it was because she wouldn't pick up or if the apocalypse happening had knocked out cell reception.

All she could do now was try to find her herself. What other choice did she have? Sitting around at home waiting to see if she came back was just not going to work, and there was no one else she could turn to who might be able to help her. Kotori's friends, extended family, and even the police all seemed to have vanished now, so this was all she could do.

She began to call her daughter's name again only to be interrupted by the sound of an explosion not far off. "What is happening in this city?" she muttered to herself, feeling as if her grasp on reality was already loosening this early into her journey. Who could blame her? None of this made sense, the skies turning a foreboding and cloudy magenta as everything began to fall to pieces around her with no warning or explanation.

Though it was an undeniable leap in logic, panic spurred her onward towards the source of the blast. Slim as the chance may be, she feared Kotori might have been involved in whatever was going on over there. It was her only lead at the moment and it couldn't be ignored.

Before she even had time to start running, though, a streak of shimmering blue light flew by her, nearly knocking her over from the pressure it produced while cutting through the air. As she steadied herself, she saw it fly upwards, then turn back. Eyes widening, she realized it was now headed straight for her.

"Stay back!" she ordered, falling backwards herself as the light formed itself into a ball, then the shape of a person. Eventually, the light dimmed away, revealing a blue-haired young man standing before her, his brow furrowed at the sight of her.

She was too confused to speak for a good several seconds, eventually stammering, "Are you…" She was going to ask if he was human considering the light show just moments ago, only stopping herself after realizing she wouldn't really know what to do if he answered in the negative. What would that make him otherwise? A demon? Some kind of alien? Did he cause the explosion from before?

But none of that mattered at the moment. "Please," she finally said, desperate for any help this person might be able to provide. "Can you tell me if you've seen a girl nearby?" Picking herself up off the ground, she retrieved a slim metal rod from the inside of her jacket, activating it to project a holographic screen. "She looks like this," she said, bringing up a photo of her daughter to show the clearly annoyed stranger.

This provoked some kind of reaction in him, eyes narrowing as he examined the picture. "That's…" He trailed off.

"Do you recognize her?" She almost dared to be hopeful here. "Do you know where she is? I just need to find her." She stepped closer, the stranger recoiling. "Please, just point me in the right direction. That's all I'm asking."

He clicked his tongue. "No, she isn't here," he said.

"Where did she go?" she asked. This meant he knew where she was. She could figure out why that was later, as right now she was far too preoccupied in getting the location out of him. No matter what his answer would be, she'd make the journey to find Kotori.

He seemed to be contemplating something, sighing heavily and looking towards her with frustration. "It would be crueler to leave you here, so I'll send you to where she's heading." She didn't understand what he was saying at first, terror gripping her right after as the boy held up some kind of device on his right wrist, a flash of light transforming him into a blue, caped monster.

Pointing towards the center of her chest, his voice spoke through his mouthless face to say, "You'll see each other again. In another world." He gave her no time to decipher what this meant or to even scream out for help, her body dispersing into a shower of tiny lights and rising into the sky. As it did, consciousness faded fast along with the particles that had once been herself. Would she wake up again after this? What was this other world he was talking about?

In her last moments, she didn't expect to get an answer to these or any of her other questions. There was no way to resist; it was already done. Before everything faded to black, one last thought managed to manifest inside her mind, that being, of course, her daughter's name: Kotori.

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching ZEXAL recently and noticed how Yuma told Cathy and Todoroki to go make sure his family knew he was going off to fight aliens in another dimension before he left with Kotori. And they did. And the last we see of them through the whole war is that they go off to cook with Yuma's grandmother.
> 
> And that got me thinking about something that seemed kind of obvious: What about Kotori's family? Were they not worried about her during the actual apocalypse? Did they even, like, call her house?
> 
> So I wrote this very short thing about what Kotori's mother was doing while everyone else was either holed up inside or being cannon fodder. And it's very fitting that the mother of a character so many of us think is pointless to the story ends up both failing to accomplish any of her goals while at the same time being extremely purposeful in the process. The only place this interaction could really take place would be right after the duel with IV, meaning Nasch was going to meet up with the others after he figured out where they were. However, he stopped to do all this, delaying him just long enough for him to eventually be intercepted by Girag right as he figured out where the rest of the gang were fighting the last Arclights. That butterfly effect. Also the whole emotional situation where Nasch has now managed to cut himself off from his humanity after killing IV, hence why he's capable of just icing his friend's mother even if he does still have to rationalize it by saying it would be cruel to leave her alive in a war zone separated from her daughter.
> 
> If it matters, I conceptualize her as a single mother here. It's not really good evidence considering no one really talks about their parents outside of Yuma and the Sharks, but the fact remains that she is the only parent we ever see for Kotori and she never brings up her home situation or mentions another parent. Overall, I just think it gives her a little more texture as a character and adds another little dimension to her desperation to find her daughter, especially when everyone else in her life has also mysteriously disappeared after a bunch of cards rained from the sky earlier. Not much of an idea for a name, though. Probably related to Kotori in some way. Let me know if you have one and I might steal it if she shows up again somewhere.
> 
> That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading. Share if you enjoyed. Always remember to tell your parents before you go off on a suicide mission.


End file.
